The field of the invention is harnesses and the invention relates more particularly to harnesses of the type used by the crew of an aircraft.
Numerous harness release buckles are known. One early version utilizing a tang and latch assembly is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,183,568 to J. A. Gaylord and assigned to the assignee of the present invention. A more recent tang and latch assembly is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,097,572. Numerous other tang and latch mechanisms are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,658,281, 3,964,138, 4,095,313, and 4,185,363.
One of the problems with all of the above patents is the difficulty in trying to release the canopy from the harness when the canopy is under a great force such as occurring when a crew member is being dragged along the ground on a windy day. For instance, when referring to U.S. Pat. No. 3,183,568, the handle or yoke 18 has teeth 24 which fit into slots 26 in shaft 8. Thus, in order to turn shaft 8, the yoke is turned, but as shown in FIG. 5, the prong 6 is abutting directly against the shaft 8 and, if the prong is under a very heavy load, it is difficult to turn yolk 18. This same shortcoming exists in U.S. Pat. No. 5,097,572 where the engagement surface 33 of notch 28 abuts shoulder 32 and makes it difficult to rotate the handle 36.